Big Things for Christchurch Reimagined

Canterbury Tourism and the City of Christchurch are running a campaign to put the city back on radar for visitors from Australia, in an attempt to pick up what was Christchurch’s largest international visitor market before the February 2011 earthquake. The first phase in the campaign focuses on Australia’s tourism-related “Big Things”. Bob Parker, mayor of Christchurch, has written an open letter to all Australians, and followed it up with a whirlwind tour of “Big Things” such as the Big Merino in Goulburn, the Big Chook in Mount Vernon, and Queensland’s Big Pineapple, Big Macadamia and Big Cow. Calling on each town’s mayors and city officials, Parker asks them to sign a Memorandum of Support to lend Christchurch their Big Thing to help increase the number of Australian tourists visiting the city. The print ad and videos point Australians to the site, reimagined.christchurchnz.com, where they can leave suggestions for Bob Parker and check out what’s on offer already in Christchurch through images and videos uploaded to the Discovery Stream.

Tom Hoskins, Creative Director for Iris, said “Australians got used to seeing Mayor Bob Parker as the face of the Christchurch earthquake disaster in 2011. We decided to flip that, making him the face of the good news in 2012, taking advantage of some Aussie Kiwi banter whilst we’re at it.”

Finch EP Michael Hilliard says, “Laughter is powerful medicine. I remember after September 11 when Saturday Night Live went back on air – Lorne Michaels the EP asked New York’s Mayor Giuliani, “Can we be funny?” and Giuliani replied, “Why start now?” It’s the right time for Christchurch to be funny.”

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